Monthly Archives: April 2012

An effort to ensure that Bayou Country Superfest keeps returning to LSU’s Tiger Stadium cleared a state Senate committee Monday.

Senate Bill 475 by state Sen. Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb, D-Baton Rouge, would create a state and local sales tax rebate for events held in certain public facilities.

Tax rebates refund money or lower tax obligations.

The Senate Committee on Revenue and Fiscal Affairs voted without objection to advance the legislation to the full Senate.

The bill’s backers said the legislation is aimed at Bayou Country Superfest, which is scheduled to be held over the Memorial Day weekend of May 26 and 27.

Past concerts have drawn Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Taylor Swift and the Zac Brown Band as well as thousands of fans.

John Carpenter, chief administrative officer for Mayor-President Kip Holden, said allowing a rebate for ticket sales and parking charges would create an incentive for the producer to stage a high quality show.

To qualify for the rebate, average attendance would have to be at least 25,000.

Tickets to next month’s event range from $50 to $250 per day.

Carpenter said other states are trying to lure the concert away from Baton Rouge.

“I don’t want to lose this to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, or Gainesville, Florida,” said Paul Arrigo, president of the Baton Rouge Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The Legislative Fiscal Office estimates the rebate would result in an annual loss of $675,000 in state and local government revenue.

State Sen. Robert Adley, R-Benton, suggested a simpler route would be to not collect the tax.

“These rebate bills are coming at us one after another,” he complained.

Carpenter said a tax credit or exemption would be ideal. Unfortunately, he said, state constitutional restrictions prohibit such a proposal this year.

Adley said that was his point. He said rebates are being used to get around constitutional restrictions.

The constitutional prohibitions put new taxes off the table as well as tax exemptions, exclusions, deductions and credits.

The constitution is silent on rebates.

Carpenter said the rebate is necessary because the city-parish is trying to secure a long-time commitment from the promoter. He said there is a risk of the concert going to Houston, Texas.

State Sen. Sharon Broome, D-Baton Rouge, interjected that the state only would lose $300,000 a year in tax revenue.

“This is certainly an economic engine,” she said of the concert.

Dorsey-Colomb said the revenue loss is a small significant amount of money in the scope of things for a concert that is watched by soldiers overseas.

“If you don’t like rebates, this is not the one you shouldn’t like,” she said.

State Sen. Gary Smith, D-Norco, wanted one assurance.

“Is Kip going to keep wearing his cowboy hat if we pass this?” he asked, referring to the mayor.

Future school bus drivers would be ineligible for tenure under a bill that won easy approval Monday morning in the Louisiana House Education Committee.

The measure, House Bill 293, next faces action on the House floor.

It passed the committee 9-3 after a brief discussion.

State Rep. Joe Harrison, R-Napoleonville and sponsor of the bill, said local, state and federal employment laws prevent the need for school bus drivers to have tenure, which is a form of job protection.

Harrison said the Terrebonne Parish school system recently spent $14,000 on a lengthy tenure dispute involving a school bus driver.

“This is a bill that can eliminate a lot of the problems that we have with the internal workings of the school system,” he said.

Louisiana is one of the few states in the nation that offers tenure to school bus drivers.

Under current rules, drivers earn tenure if they successfully complete a three-year probationary period.

The state has 13,729 school bus drivers, according to the state Department of Education.

Under HB293, those hired after July 1 would not be eligible for tenure.

The bill is backed by the Council for a Better Louisiana, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, the state Department of Education and the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The Louisiana Federation of Teachers, which is a teachers’ union, opposed the measure.

LFT President Steve Monaghan said it is unfair to compare tenure laws here with the rest of the nation because many other states have collective bargaining laws to address employment issues.

HB436 Requires instruction on the Founding Principles of the U.S. to be integrated into the high school American history course in House Education committee.

SB350 Continues indefinitely the levy of a local tax of 1.5 percent of the gross proceeds derived from the lease or rental of an automobile pursuant to an automobile rental contract in Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs committee.

SB7 and SB12 Provides for a 60-month average compensation for active employees in Senate Retirement committee.

Joint session of the Legislature to recognize Louisiana’s 200th anniversary of joining the United States.

HB293 Limits applicability of laws relative to a school bus operator becoming a regular and permanent employee of the employing school board and provides relative to removal of certain operators.

HB312 Permits, rather than requires, school systems to retain supervision of suspended or expelled students using alternative education programs.

HB418 Restructures the Health Education Authority of La..

HB436 Requires instruction on the Founding Principles of the U.S. to be integrated into the high school American history course.

HB661 Requires BESE to provide for a school health care system in all public schools.

HB662 Requires BESE to provide for a social services program in all public schools.

HB716 Limits applicability of laws relative to a school bus operator becoming a regular and permanent employee of the employing school board and provides relative to removal of certain operators.

HB730 Requires students to have the same two teachers throughout K-4.

HB927 Provides for the governance of public postsecondary education.

HB944 Eliminates extended sick leave for public school teachers and employees.

HB1088 Provides for the establishment and administration of a targeted coordinated school health program for the purpose of reducing childhood obesity and a grant program to assist public school governing authorities with implementation.

HB1136 Provides for establishment of a specialized statewide Type 2 charter school for certain at-risk students.

HB650 Creates an individual income tax return checkoff for donations to the establishment and operation of a center of excellence for autism spectrum disorder.

HB754 Authorizes state sales and use tax rebate contracts for certain businesses.

HB835 Provides that the State Bond Commission shall establish an online database for posting notices for bond validation suits.

HB898 Requires all withholding tax returns to be filed quarterly.

SB143 Requires local sales tax due on the distribution of prescription drugs by a pharmacy in the state on behalf of a pharmacy benefit management company to be collected from the pharmacy benefit management company.

SB269 Prohibits a police jury, municipality, or other local governing authority from charging any franchise fee or similar charge to an electric, gas, or water public utility which is in excess of 2% of annual gross receipts.

SB337 Provides for the property tax exemption for certain disabled veterans to apply to the spouses of such veterans if the veterans passed away prior to the enactment of the exemption.

SB350 Continues indefinitely the levy of a local tax of 1.5 percent of the gross proceeds derived from the lease or rental of an automobile pursuant to an automobile rental contract.

SB351 Authorizes a parish or municipality to continue indefinitely the levy of a local tax of 1.5 percent of the gross proceeds derived from the lease or rental of an automobile pursuant to an automobile rental contract.

SB397 Provides relative to the cancellation of an assessment for closed and inactive businesses..

SB398 Provides an alternative bidding procedure on property at a tax sale.

SB539 Provides for credit against local taxes when tangible personal property is brought into this state under certain circumstances.

SB574 Provides relative to changes of liability for payment of taxes during the redemptive period after a tax sale.

SB605 Provides for procedures and notifications required for tax sales.

SB653 Provides for the use of the tax proceeds of a sales tax district in Breaux Bridge.

SB680 Removes specific authority of the Louisiana Tax Commission to appoint a secretary.

SB717 Requires rebate loss notes on certain legislative instruments with a net decrease in revenues due to rebates by the state.

SB31 Provides for purchase of service credit and membership in the system.

SB43 Provides for tax qualification.

SB657 Provides relative to the membership of the board of trustees of the District Attorneys Retirement System.

SENATE COMMITTEE MEETINGS

Education. At adjournment in John J. Hainkel, Jr. Room. Agenda includes: Receive and consider report issued Jan. 12, 2012 by the Governance Commission established by the Board of Regents pursuant to HCR 184 of 2011 Regular Session

HB98 Authorizes public school boards to name certain school athletic facilities after living persons.

HB149 Defines the terms “elementary school”, “middle school”, “junior high school”, and “high school” for purposes of general school law.

HB273 Provides relative to the membership of the College and Career Readiness Commission.

HB579 Provides relative to the official working language and certain designations of the Council for the Development of French in La.

HB926 Specifies circumstances under which an award applicant’s ACT/SAT test score can be submitted to and considered by the TOPS administering agency after statutorily established submission deadlines.

HB945 Extends TOPS eligibility for certain students who reenlist in the U.S. Armed Forces and maintain continuous active duty.

HCR63 Requests that legislators, statewide elected officials, and members of the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education volunteer to teach in a public school for at least two days of each year of their term of office.

SB305 Removes geographic limitations on the legislature’s authority to create new school boards and provide relative to the financing of public education.

HCR10 Memorializes congress to encourage the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Gulf of Mexico Marine Fisheries Council, and the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council to adopt a weekend only fishery for red snapper.

HCR49 Requests the Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries to study Bayou Teche for possible inclusion into the Historic and Scenic Rivers program.

HCR64 Requests the Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries to study for possible implementation the issuance of hunting and recreational fishing licenses for a year from the date of issuance.

SCR40 Requests the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, in conjunction with appropriate member agencies, to jointly study the freshwater needs of the Mermentau Basin and the feasibility of diverting Atchafalaya River water into the Mermentau Basin..

A plan that would permit a new breakaway school district in southeast Baton Rouge won lopsided approval Wednesday in the Louisiana Senate.
The two-bill package passed 30-8 and 29-7 after about one hour of debate.
The plan next faces action in the Louisiana House and, if approved there, voters statewide.
Under the proposal, 10 public schools now in the East Baton Rouge Parish school system would make up the newly-formed Southeast Baton Rouge Community School System.
State Sen. Bodi White, R-Central and sponsor of the plan, said the package is a response to pleas from mothers, fathers, students and others who have concluded that long-standing problems in the East Baton Rouge system demand a fresh start.
“They want it very badly,” White said of residents in the area.
The proposed district would extend southeast from the Interstate 10/12 split, south of I-12 and east of I-10 to the parish lines.
It would apply to seven elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school.
The new district would be the fourth of its kind and follow breakaway moves by Baker, Central and Zachary.
All used to be part of the East Baton Rouge Parish school system, which has a “D” rating.
White noted that Istrouma High School will soon be put under state control — which he called the eighth such school in the district — and that 31 other failing schools in north Baton Rouge are about to enter a new improvement zone, which will also be overseen by the state.
He said parish education spending totals $14,300 per student when construction dollars are included.
“It is not about the money,” White told the Senate. “It is about are we going to educate these kids.”
But state Sen. Sharon Broome, D-Baton Rouge, disputed White’s comments in a pointed exchange near the end of the debate.
Broome said that, while views vary on how to repair the schools, dismantling the system is not the answer.
“If we are going to work toward education reform in East Baton Rouge Parish let’s all do it together,” Broome said.
She said that leaving one segment of the school population behind “to just suffer, that is not being community minded.”
Broome sponsored an amendment that would require the new district to provide about $6 million per year to the East Baton Rouge Parish school system for “legacy” costs, such as teacher retirement and other expenses.
“With all of these breakaways we will be bankrupt if this is not addressed,” she said.
The amendment failed 16-20.
The proposal that spells out details of the plan is Senate Bill 563, which requires a simple majority.
The constitutional amendment that is also required, Senate Bill 299, needs a two-thirds vote of support, which is 26 in the Senate.
White said after the vote that he thinks the bills stand a good chance of passage in the House, even with intense opposition from leaders of the East Baton Rouge Parish school system,
“It is change, it is difficult,” he said.
East Baton Rouge Parish school system leaders note that $97 million has been committed for schools in the proposed district.
Broome said that includes $17 million for Woodlawn Elementary School, $13 million for Woodlawn Middle School and $23 million for Woodlawn High School.
The East Baton Rouge school system has about 43,000 students, and black students make up 81 percent of enrollment.
About 6,800 students attend public schools in the proposed district now, and officials say about 55 percent are minority.
What the new district would look like is in dispute.
White has said he thinks enrollment will be about 25 percent minority.
Critics contend that figure is too high and that race concerns are part of the motivation for the move.
Here are the 10 schools that are now in the East Baton Rouge Parish system that would make up the new district:
Cedarcrest-Southmoor, Jefferson Terrace, Parkview, Shenandoah, Wedgewood, Westminster and Woodlawn elementary schools; Woodlawn and Southeast middle schools and Woodlawn High School.
Voting FOR establishing a new school district in southeast Baton Rouge (30): President Alario, Adley, Allain, Appel, Buffington, Chabert, Claitor, Cortez, Crowe, Donahue, Erdey, Guillory, Johns, Kostelka, Long, Martiny, Mills, Morrell, Morrish, Nevers, Peacock, Perry, Riser, G. Smith, J. Smith, Tarver, Thompson, Walsworth, Ward and White.
Voting AGAINST SB563 (8): Sens. Broome, Brown, Dorsey-Colomb, Gallot, Heitmeier, LaFleur, Murray and Peterson.
NOT Voting (1): Sen. Amedee.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama nominated Baton Rouge attorney Shelly D. Dick on Wednesday afternoon to the federal judgeship left vacant by the death of Chief U.S. District Judge Ralph E. Tyson.

Tyson died in July after a long fight with lung cancer.

Dick is a founding partner in the Baton Rouge firm of Forrester & Dick.

In November, Dick was one of three possible nominees recommended to Obama by U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. The other two were Baton Rouge attorneys Winston DeCuir Jr. and Christine Lipsey.

Dick is a veteran defense attorney in civil litigation in federal court. And she has represented both government and non-government clients in matters of federal employment law.

For the past three years, Dick has served the Louisiana Workforce Commission as an ad hoc hearing officer in the Office of Worker’s Compensation.

Dick graduated cum laude in business administration in 1981 at the University of Texas at Austin. And she managed a $3 million sales territory for Dow Chemical for five years before entering law school.

She earned her law degree in 1988 at LSU, where she was a member of the LSU Law Review.

Her name will now be sent to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration.

Committee members often do not take action on a nominee unless he or she has the approval of both of a state’s senators. That means that any proposed judicial appointment in Louisiana also is subject to the approval of Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter.

Advocate Staff Photo by Travis Spradling. State Rep. Thomas Carmody, R-Shreveport, speaks Wednesday to state Rep. Patricia Smith, D-Baton Rouge, after an 8-8 vote failed to advance her legislation that would mandate sex education classes at every public school. The closeness of the vote means House Bill 820 can be debated again.

A bill that would require the teaching of sex education in public schools narrowly failed Wednesday afternoon in a Louisiana House committee.

The vote was 8-8, one short of the majority needed for any proposal to move to the full House for debate but enough to allow the legislation to be debated again.

State Rep. Patricia Smith, D-Baton Rouge and sponsor of the measure, said she plans to make another try at winning approval in the House Education Committee.

The proposal is House Bill 820 and would take effect with the 2013-14 school year. Under the plan, schools would be required to provide “age appropriate” instruction on human sexuality.

Topics at various grades would include the teaching of abstinence as the most reliable way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases and the proper use of contraceptives.

The bill would ban any advocacy for abortion.

Parents could, through a written request, have their children removed from the class.

Backers said the change is needed, in part because of Louisiana’s high rate of sexually transmitted diseases

“We are not giving them the right information to be healthy teens,” Smith told the committee.

Opponents said the issue should remain a local matter and one for parents and guardians.

Under current law, local school districts have the option of offering sex education classes but it is not a requirement.

A state Senate committee defied the Jindal administration Wednesday and advanced legislation that would organize an exchange to help facilitate the purchase and sale of health care insurance under the new federal law.

The Senate Insurance Committee “just voted to make a very risky move,” said Bruce Greenstein, secretary of state Health and Hospitals, after the panel voted 6-2 to advance Senate Bill 744. Louisiana is one of a handful of states that have refused to set up a health care insurance and opt instead for the federal exchange as required under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Greenstein said the Jindal administration opposed the legislation because the exchange, a website where people without health insurance could go to find policies, would set up a new government bureaucracy that ultimately would be funded by increased state taxes or premiums.

“This is an attempt to be prepared,” countered state Sen. Karen Peterson, D-New Orleans, who sponsored SB744.

The federal law requires that states either set up their own exchange or join the federal government’s 2014.

Work on organizing the exchange would stop should the U.S. Supreme Court, which is considering the constitutionality of the federal health care revamp, strike down the law.

Peterson amended the legislation to require the board putting together the exchange to present the plan first for approval to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget before sending it the federal government.

Advocate Staff Photo by Travis Spradling. State Rep. Dalton Honoré, left, D-Baton Rouge, and Preston Castille, right, a member of the Southern University Lab School Advisory group, meet Wednesday after a House committee advanced legislation authorizing a tuition increase at Southern University Lab School.

Parents of Southern University Laboratory School students could be on the hook to pay about $2,400 per year to send their children to the school after the Louisiana House Education committee approved a $500 tuition increase Wednesday.

The school currently charges about $997 per semester, or $1,994 per year. House Bill 856 sponsored by state Rep. Dalton Honoré, D-Baton Rouge, will advance to the full House of Representatives for consideration.

Another Honoré sponsored bill, House Bill 761, which would allow the school to hire private vendors to provide food service, also advanced out of the committee and is headed to the House floor for consideration. School Director, Ronnie Harrison said privatizing food service could save the school about $36,000 per year.